Ensure Longevity of your Tyres with Proper Maintenance

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Proper maintenance of all parts of your car can extend their lifetime and ensure safety for you and your passengers. This is especially true when it comes to tyres. A lot of people forget to check on their tyres, thinking that if they bought a new set, there is no need for maintenance, but they are hugely mistaken. There are a number of things on the road that can affect car tyres, so a regular checkup is mandatory. If you have under-inflated tyres, or even just one, you can cause additional damage to your car and – not to mention – endanger yourself.

Higher fuel consumption, faster wear of suspensions, brakes and steering are all side-effects of under-inflated and poorly maintained tyres. On top of all this, you can even get fined for driving on defective tyres. As you can see there are plenty of reasons to regularly check up on them, and that is why we have decided to write this short guide on their proper maintenance, that will ensure their longevity.

There are three things to keep an eye on when doing maintenance on your tyres: tears on the surface, the pressure inside them and wear on the treads. Depending on the damage even one thing can make a tyre unusable.

How to check for tears in tyres

The first thing you need to do is check for tears in tyres. While driving, tyres go over all sorts of pointy and sharp objects like nails, thorns, etc. which can do serious damage to them. That is why regular inspections for tears in them are essential. Inspect your tyres one by one and try to see if there are any embedded objects. If there is something stuck in the front tread area, then that is usually an easy fix for the mechanic, but if the sidewall is punctured instead, then the whole tyre needs to be replaced.

Depending on the mileage you are covering with your car, you will have to check your tyres once a week if you drive often, and once a month if you are a low-mileage driver. If left unchecked, tears in tyres can lead to tyre bursts mid-driving, or you can wake up with a flat tyre.

How to know if tyres are worn out

The next thing on your list should be the tyre tread inspection. You can do this while checking for tears in them. New tyres start with 8mm of tread that slowly wears out while driving. There are a number of ways you can prolong the tread life of your tyre, but the most effective way is to always keep your tyre pressure optimal. We consulted the experts at Tyreright and they told us that the optimal tyre pressure is usually between 30-35 PSI, but it can vary between the models.

With worn out treads you have less control of your car during wet road conditions and risk losing control of it while breaking and making sharp turns. Also, if your tread is beneath 1.6mm police can write you a fine, which can be completely avoided with proper maintenance.

How to check tyre pressure

We already talked a little bit about optimal tyre pressure, but here are a few extra things you should know. The tyre pressure is, probably, the most important point on this list. It prolongs not only the lifetime of tyres, but also of suspensions, brakes and it regulates the fuel consumption. Keeping your tyre pressure in the optimum range enables your tyres to get a much better grip on the road, giving you additional control in any weather.

To properly check your tyre pressure buy a gauge, or go to the nearest gas station – they usually have one there. It will take you only a couple of minutes, but it will make a huge difference once properly pressurised.

As you can see the proper maintenance of tyres is absolutely necessary. Your safety and longevity of tyres depend on it. So next time, before you hit the road, do a quick checkup of your tyres and you will enjoy your ride much more, and maybe even save some money by evading a ticket from the police.